1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transportation of fresh perishables and, more particularly, deals with an effort to utilize balanced mass transfer in transportable containers for fresh foods such as fruits, chilled meats, vegetables, and the like.
Major containers, sometimes known as van containers, transporting numerous crates or other packages of such fresh foods can have conditions of relative humidity and appropriate temperature controlled correctly and properly, with appropriate conditions of the combined simultaneous transfer of heat and mass within said unit. The optimum storage condition is one in which the combined heat and vapor is pressurized and balanced between the internal mass of vapor of the internal space of the product and the activated airstream coming in contact with it.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been many devices for shipment of fresh foods to maintain them in a continued fresh condition. Each of these devices has had its limitations. For example, my prior invention, U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,459, reissued as U.S. Pat. No. 27,457, although an extreme advance in the art, did not fully recognize all of the problems or suggest the solution present in some of the aspects of the present invention. Some of the new treatment and control methods and apparatus disclosed in this application are of unusual interest and value.
Thus, there is no real "prior art" in the exact field of "balanced mass transfer" between cargo and internal airstream for cargo cooling in the container, as is needed in today's shipping. The balanced, minimal heat and mass transfer process for fresh, heat-producing produce in a novel cooling system and is the object of this invention.